


Episode 3: Sloan Canyon, Nevada

by DangersUntoldHardshipsUnnumbered



Series: The Canyon's Arms Are All We Know [3]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-03
Updated: 2019-05-03
Packaged: 2020-02-16 16:05:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18694792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DangersUntoldHardshipsUnnumbered/pseuds/DangersUntoldHardshipsUnnumbered
Summary: Alex's boss decides that she needs a break.





	Episode 3: Sloan Canyon, Nevada

“It’s just a sprain,” Alex protested. “I’ll be fine.”

Kara didn’t seem convinced. She kept looking worriedly at the bandage on Alex’s wrist.

For someone who said “I’m fine” as often as Alex Danvers did, she was not fine an awful lot of the time. She now sat at the kitchen table, staring at her laptop, looking at Vartaq’s blood samples and trying to figure out a way to make the shots last longer so that she wouldn’t have to give them as frequently. J’onn had said he was working on getting permission to move him, but the DEO wasn’t immune to bureaucracy. The Department of Extranormal Operations was a typical government agency in that one respect.

Of course, in others, it was not so typical. While its role in the larger cities tended to be dealing with more hostiles, in the more remote rural areas like this, it tended to be a lot of house calls. A lot of tending wounds, administering drugs, PTSD therapy, job placement, and so forth. She was trained to handle more hostile scenarios if it came down to that, but most of what they got out this way wasn’t that. And it let Alex make use of her education and kept her in the loop for things that might be helpful to Kara.

Kara, sucking the last of a fudge bar off its wooden stick, dragged her chair across the kitchen tiles and peered at Alex’s screen. “What’s that?”

“Blood sample.” Alex didn’t mean to be curt, but her wrist still hurt and she was trying to work anyway, having wrapped it in an ace bandage and strapped an ice pack to it.

Kara poked at the bandage.

“Ow!” Alex complained.

“Sorry.”Kara looked at her typing one-handed for a minute. Then she snatched the laptop away.

“What are you doing?” Alex grumbled. She grabbed the laptop with both hands and instantly regretted it when she remembered that she had one sprained wrist.

“The story unfolded quickly as I typed,” Kara said, not letting go of the laptop.

“Ow! What?”

“The story unfolded quickly as I typed,” Kara repeated.

Alex knew she was quoting something, but didn’t know where the quote came from. She sighed and thought for a moment.

Kara set the laptop on the table in front of herself and looked at Alex’s hands impatiently. “The story unfolded quickly as I typed.” She was growing more insistent.

Alex understood. She was trying to help. Actually, letting her type wasn’t the worst idea. She was actually ridiculously fast.

So she started giving dictation. Kara’s fingers flew over the keyboard as Alex launched into an explanation of her thinking on what could be done with Vartaq’s treatment, intending to send it to her boss in memo form and carbon copy it to just about anyone who might care.

“…and in any case, while adding Norocan to the treatment in limited amounts might extend the effectiveness for an additional four to seven days, clinician does not recommend continued treatments in perpetuity. Clinician’s recommendation is relocation to Anchorage DEO custody.”

Kara looked at the screen dubiously. “Clinician?”

Alex nodded. “Me. I’m clinician.”

Kara giggled. “You’re Alex.”

Alex sighed. “Yeah, but I’m also clinician.”

Kara nodded. “Norocan sucks,” she commented suddenly.

Alex chuckled. She was sure she’d said that at some point. “Yeah, sometimes.”

“Cyclonomine?”

“Doesn’t work on Kinarrian males. I’m stuck with Norocan.”

“Norocan sucks.”

Alex smiled wearily. Kara actually had a pretty decent understanding of organic chemistry and extraterrestrial pharmaceuticals. “Leave the drugging to me, will you?” She reached out and closed the laptop.She squeezed Kara’s hand. “Thanks for helping.”

Kara beamed. “Game of Thrones time?”

Alex nodded wearily. “Yeah, okay.”

Just then, though, the screen door opened, and J’onn came trudging in. “Alex,” he greeted her.

“No heads up?” Alex wondered.

He came over, and leaned down to try and catch Kara’s eye. “Hi Kara.”

Kara didn’t feel like looking at him directly, but she greeted him warmly enough. “Hi, J’onn. Norocan sucks.”

He smiled. “Is that her professional recommendation?”

Alex put her hands up in surrender. “Sure, why not?”

He gazed at her for a moment and then asked, “Got a minute?”

Alex shrugged. “Yeah, I guess.” She reached out with her good hand and squeezed Kara’s shoulder. “Hey, can you go watch TV? I need to talk to J’onn for a few minutes.”

Kara got up and walked from the room, humming the theme music to Game of Thrones.

J’onn watched her leave fondly. “She seems more communicative than last time I saw her.”

Alex sighed. “Yeah, I guess she’s been improving. It’s hard to see it happen when you live with someone day in, day out.”An awkward pause. “So, what’s up?”

He looked at her wrist. “Well, your mother called me, and–”

She groaned. “J’onn, I swear to god, I’m–”

“You are not fine,” he said firmly. He turned Kara’s recently-vacated chair around and sat backwards in it, leaning forward in that “let’s have a heart to heart” posture. “The way your mom tells it, you were too drunk to drive home, and after you helped her get Kara out of the attic, you insisted on going up on the ladder with your drunk self to check the roof tiles. That’s not great judgment.”

She huffed. “I told her, I have to leave early tomorrow and I didn’t want to leave it all day. And I wasn’t drunk.”

He shook his head. “Look, Alex, I understand that field work of the type you do can be really hard on people, emotionally. I had to move to back office after a few years myself. And you, in particular, don’t really get a break, because your mother relies on you to help Kara in much the same way.”

Alex fidgeted. “So what’s your point?”

“Well, Agent, you have an awful lot of unused paid vacation time.”

“J’onn, I can’t possibly–”

“This isn’t a conversation. It’s an order. You’re taking a nice long vacation.”

She looked warily at him. “What’s long? A week?”

“Three.”

She shook her head.“No. No way. I can’t leave Vartaq for that long, and I can’t leave Eliza alone with Kara for that long, it’s too much, there’s no way. And what about all my other cases?” 

He smiled lopsidedly. “Well, I’m putting in a few phone calls. I expect it’ll take a day or two to set everything up, but this little disaster–” He gestured to her bandaged wrist. “–really makes it pretty clear that you need a break. You haven’t taken a vacation in almost two years. You’ve earned one, and you deserve it. I don’t want to lose one of my best agents to burnout.”

A weird heaviness settled in her chest.“What am I supposed to do with myself for three weeks?” she whispered, more to herself than to him.

“Well, that’s up to you. If it makes you feel better, there’s a Yabantu family in Sloan Canyon, just outside Vegas. They haven’t had a routine check-in in a little while, so you can go look in on them. And after that…” He gestured vaguely. “Whatever you want.”

Guilt was skittering up in her chest. She spent a moment wrestling it down.

“Get out a map. Maybe you’d like to go visit Roswell for a laugh. Just get out of town, shake it all off for a little bit. You need it.”

She nodded dumbly.

“You still doing that radio show on the HAM radio in the basement?”

She snorted. “I don’t think anyone was listening to that.”

He smiled. “I was.”

She flushed. “Great. That’s like having my dad read my diary.”

He winked at her.

Kara started singing the Game of Thrones theme very loudly from the living room.

J’onn looked up.“I think you’re being paged.” 

She smiled awkwardly. “Yeah, sounds like it.”

He stood up. “But this is effective immediately. You’re not going out into the field tomorrow like that.”

She sighed, but didn’t bother complaining. “OK, fine.”

J’onn lifted his voice.“Goodbye, Kara!” he called.

“Bye J’onn!” she called back.“Norocan sucks!”

The screen door banged shut. Alex was confronted with the horror of a three week vacation.Who was going to take care of everything while she was gone?

She shuffled into the living room and snuggled up next to Kara on the couch. Kara’s head rested on Alex’s shoulder. They watched while Alex’s mind turned in circles, wondering where in the hell she would go on this enforced vacation, and if J’onn had told her mother, and what her mother thought about it.

“Arya’s dead?” Kara asked.

“Huh?”Alex brought her attention back to the show.“No, Arya went to Braavos.”

“Arya went to Braavos.”

“Yeah.”

Alex went back to brooding.

 

*******

 

The next morning, Alex sat at breakfast with her mother and Kara, scarfing down waffles and piping hot coffee with ridiculous amounts of cream and sugar.Kara was sitting, drawing a complex pattern of diplazopine molecules.Alex didn’t know where or when Kara had looked up the molecular diagrams of the various pharmaceuticals she used on her alien clients, but they all seemed to be jammed into that confusing, amazing brain of hers, jostling for position with song lyrics, advanced calculus, and George Clooney’s entire speech, word for word, at the end of “The Fantastic Mr. Fox.”

“So, um…” Alex began. “…did J’onn discuss with you…?”

Eliza put a hand up. “He did. I don’t think it’s a good idea to discuss it just now, though.”

Alex nodded. Kara might not seem like she was paying attention, but things were always getting absorbed.

There came a tap at the screen door. Alex and Eliza glanced up. “Clark?”

He grinned, and pushed the door open. It banged shut behind him as he clomped in, wearing work boots and a flannel shirt unbuttoned one too many.“Morning, ladies.”

Kal-El was Kara’s famous cousin, Superman, Earth’s Champion. But now, he was just Clark, the hapless young man who needed an awful lot of help caring for a young relative with needs that he couldn’t begin to comprehend. Clark had arrived on Earth as a baby, and so he’d never had to go through the rocky adjustment period with his powers that Kara did.

And more to the point, he’d never gotten trapped for years on end in the Phantom Zone, staring into the blackness of space and wondering if he’d ever see another living soul again.Any twelve year old girl, superpower or not, would be difficult for a young, single man to care for alone. Add in the trauma and its long term effects, and, well. Superman didn’t exactly have the capacity to save the world and also cart his cousin to speech, OT, and behavioral therapy at the UC in Bakersfield every day.

“Clark Kent, star reporter,” Kara commented into her second plate of waffles. “Clark Kent is Superman. Alex Danvers is Clinician.”

He came over and ruffled her hair, then bent down and gave Eliza and then Alex a peck on the cheek. He looked down at Alex’s ace bandage. “Heard you’ve been beating up more people than I have.”

She smirked. “Yeah, well. Some people need it more than others. What are you doing here?"

They saw him regularly, as he came by often to check on Kara and give Alex and her mother an opportunity to slip out to a movie or something here and there. “Well, I heard about your plans, and I’m going to be picking up some of the slack while you’re gone. I’m sure I won’t be anywhere near as good as you, but I’ll do the best I can.”

“But, um… what about all your, you know… world-savey type stuff?”

“Well, the world can just do what it did before I...”

He broke off. Another vehicle was coming up the driveway. Alex craned her neck. Her stomach clenched. It was a jeep with a “Semper Fi” sticker on the front. “What the hell is Lucy doing here?”

Clark scratched behind his ear. “Well, I guess she’s taking some of your work cases, and she’ll be helping your mom when I can’t be around.”

Lucy also worked for the DEO. That was how they’d met. Not really having time for much outside of work and family, it only made sense that Alex would get involved with someone at the job. But she’d have fallen for Lucy no matter how they’d met. She had the ripped arms of a Marine and a kiss that melted in your mouth like cotton candy.She watched Lucy come up the steps and call out, “Knock knock!”

“Come on in, Lucy,” Eliza called back.

Lucy came in. “Hi Eliza. Hi Clark.”She came over and patted Kara on the back. “Hi Kara.”

“Hi Lucy,” Kara answered, not looking up from her drawing.

Lucy leaned over her shoulder and looked at the paper. “Diplazopine?”

“Diplazopine,” Kara confirmed. “Norocan sucks.”

Lucy chuckled. “You and Alex been discussing o-chem again, I see.” She fixed her jasper gaze on Alex, then. “I think the DEO should have a Take Your Sister to Work Day. Kara would fix everyone's labs in half an hour.”

Alex hadn’t told Kara or her mother that Lucy and she were together, but she knew they were aware of the increase in Lucy’s presence for a while, and then the sudden reduction.For weeks after their breakup, Kara had been filling the house with drawings of Lucy and her toddler, Penny, not understanding why they weren't around anymore.

“Everyone’s here,” Kara commented.

Eliza looked at Alex and then sighed. “Yes, Kara. Alex is going to go on a little trip for a while, and so Clark and Lucy are going to be around more to help out.”

“Alex is going to Braavos?” Kara wondered.

Alex chuckled. “Yeah, I’m going to Braavos.”

“A girl is no-one,” Kara muttered, quoting Arya Stark after she became a faceless assassin.

“Just for a little while. And then a girl comes home again and she’s Clinician.”

Kara seemed satisfied with that, for the moment.

Alex got up.“Hey Luce, can we go talk shop for a minute?”

Lucy nodded.

They retired to Alex’s room. The morning light slanted in through the window and cast squares of sunlight on the bed that they used to frequently share. “So, um,” Alex began awkwardly. “Did J’onn give you all my case files?”

Lucy nodded. “Yeah of course.”

“Are you gonna be ok doing these runs? I know it’s not the most exciting thing in the world.”

Lucy shrugged. “I had enough excitement in Afghanistan. And frankly, Penny keeps me on my toes anyway.”

Alex’s eyebrows drew together in a frown. “Yeah, are you going to be okay managing lil’ Chubby Cheeks in addition to being around here?”

Lucy nodded. “Yeah, Jimmy’s helping me while you’re gone. Cat was willing to switch a few shifts around for him.”

“That’s cool.” It was dawning on Alex how much her extended friend-family was involving themselves in getting her this break. There was really no reason to resent it. “Hey, um, thanks… for, you know…”

Lucy reached out and squeezed her shoulder. “Allie, I told you, I always want us to be friends. I wish it wasn’t so hard for you having Jimmy be such a big part of my life, but I get it. And you know I won’t ever stop caring about you. I want you to be okay. This is important.”

Alex flushed, and didn’t say anything for a moment. She felt a pang of loneliness, of missing what they’d had. But then it passed. “Listen, there’s one thing that I need you to do for me.”

“I’m not fixing the roof.”

“Ha. No, Eliza’s calling someone for that. No… I just… please keep Max Lord away from Kara. I can’t prove it, but he just sets off all my alarm bells. It's not only that he's an asshole. I really think he’s doing business with Cadmus or something. He’s just the type to be using unapproved ET labor on that factory farm of his, and god knows what else. Just … if you do run into him, don’t mention that I’m not around, and don’t let him anywhere near my sister.”

Lucy nodded gravely. “Of course. I trust your gut.” She looked fondly at Alex for a minute, and then down at the wrist bandage. “So, how bad is that?”

Alex waved it noncommittally. “Not that bad, actually. I think I’ll be able to take it off in a day or two. I’d really like to get out of it before I go. I wanna… I wanna take the bike.”

Lucy whistled. “Ah, you know I love that bike.”

Alex had a black 1979 Honda Goldwing that she’d fixed up herself. It was a point of pride. The thought had just occurred to her that tooling around the desert and the canyons on it underneath the open sky actually was a glorious thought. She hadn’t ridden it in ages.

The room began feeling small. Alex was becoming a little too conscious of Lucy’s perfume, that jasmine scent she liked. “Anyway, that’s all. Let’s go back out there before they start to wonder.”

 

****

 

Two days later, Alex was starting up her Goldwing and staring out at the highway. The visit to the Yabantu family wasn’t going to be anything more than getting a few papers signed and probably eating dinner with them, as their customs dictated. 

She was consumed with thoughts of after that, of going nowhere. She was ready to spend three weeks being no-one.

_Sloan Canyon, here I come._


End file.
